This is a Message Board Post that is gatewayed to this mailing list. Classification: Query Message Board URL: http://boards.ancestry.com/mbexec/msg/rw/FG0.2ACIB/995.1.1.1.1.1.2 Message Board Post: FYI..........since I was raised in NINETY SIX , I can explain a little of why a town would be called Seventy Six. In the early settlement of our country there were outposts and forts spread out all over for the protection of the settlers. The King had surveys done on the roads, paths, trails, and etc.and the surveyors put interesting spots on the map as ninety six, seventy six, 10 mile, 6 mile, and etc. This spot might be a trading post, a starting point of a creek system or something else. We were all told that an Indian maiden rode 96 miles from Columbia to Star Fort [ near present day 96] to warn her lover of an impending attack on the fort. Not true......96 was the mile marker from, if I remember correctly, Charleston. The whole district became known as the 96 district. I have a book with all of this explained and the original map. So, if you run into a town that is named a number, it is probably a mile marker from pre-revolutionary times. Now why Cowpens, S.C.......Six Killer, Ten Killer, and Two Killer, Oklahoma? Just thought you might be interested . Margaret